"As of 05 June 2010 spatial imagination will have full reign in the Luchtbal district. For a month the location-specific project HABITAT will alight in the neighbourhood, consisting of exhibitions, readings, guided tours, local dishes.

intervention by complizen Planungsbüro

National and international artists will occupy eight apartments in an empty apartment block on Manchesterlaan, using the vacant spaces to create their own interpretation of the concept of ‘living’. The eight artists will be the last inhabitants of the building before the entire district is subjected to comprehensive renovations. The HABITAT project is an initiative of Middelheimproductie, the Luchtbal cultural centre and the urban regeneration team Programma’s voor Stad in Verandering and is headed by guest curator Bruno Herzeele.

Luchtbal in Antwerp, Belgium

The social housing on Manchesterlaan, in the little-known yet highly socially and architecturally varied area of Luchtbal in Antwerp, is soon to make way for brand new social housing. It is an important step that will breathe new life into the district and regenerate the quality of life of the area. Under the supervisory eye of curator Bruno Herzeele, Middelheimproductie, the Luchtbal cultural centre and the urban regeneration team Programma’s voor Stad in Verandering have turned this comprehensive regeneration into a gigantic neighbourhood party - HABITAT.

intervention by complizen Planungsbüro

The festival of spatial imagination
An empty apartment block at 31/33 Manchesterlaan is the starting point for this exceptional location-specific project. Guest curator Bruno Herzeele has invited eight national and international artists (or artists’ groups), utopian architects and radical urban planners to find the right installation in the right place. During the month of May the artists will be working/residing/living/creating their own habitats in the eight apartments.
HABITAT is a very special location-specific project. It not only requires that the artists are compelled to make the space itself the focus of their imagination, it also presents them with the extraordinary challenge of transforming an intimate and private apartment into a public gallery.

place of intervention: empty apartment block at 31/33 Manchesterlaan

The eight artists/architects groups that converted the empty building into their own playground are: